“Christopher Ondaatje has travelled along the routes of those early explorers, reflecting on his way on the issues that preoccupied these intrepid Victorians and on the nature of the ultimate truth, which the Victorians were so keen to establish. We now understand in precise detail the drainage system of the lakes and we have mapped the Mountains of the Moon, the Ruwenzori Mountains .

….Ondaatje has challenged us to look with a new insight into the significance of the great European expeditions in search of the source of the Nile . Like these Victorian explorers, he has made some unexpected but fascinating discoveries.”

Lord Selborne

President The Royal Geographical Society

“I first met Christopher Ondaatje just before he set out on the expedition to the source of the Nile which is the subject of this book. Having spent his life as a banker and financier, he gave it up to become an adventurer. This book is redolent of his personality: full of fascination for the great Victorian explorers, Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke; driven by an intense and restless desire to find out for himself what it feels like to penetrate the heart of Central Africa . He travels from the backstreets of Zanzibar to the shores of the great lakes and the Ruwenzori Mountains , with bandits and refugees en route. And, like his Victorian predecessors, he uses his journey as an opportunity for reflection on the life, customs, and landscape of the people he encounters.”

Charles Saumarez Smith

Director, National Portrait Gallery, London

“Ondaatje and Burton are kindred spirits – restless, inquisitive, and adventurous. In his own time Ondaatje has been a great adventurer and conqueror.”

Haroon Siddiqui

Editor Emeritus, Editorial Page, The Toronto Star